Friday in the Pepsi Center (Denver), sixth stop on a five-month world tour, U2 achieved immediate liftoff with the exhilarating Elevation and maintained that altitude through two hours and 22 songs, touching down in the final notes of Walk On, an appropriate parting gift of hope and encouragement.

Gone are the futuristic banks of video monitors, the suspended cars, the colossal disco lemon, the kaleidoscopic imagery. But Elevation manages to be just as provocative and daring as past tours.

For starters, U2 has no camouflage or digital-art foils. Sweat and art tangle on a stark stage where human drama replaces computer-generated adrenaline.

Elevation's modest visual enhancements -- psychedelic shadow boxes, floating star charts, overhead video screens projecting the band in black and white -- suit the beautiful simplicity of new tunes from All That You Can't Leave Behind.